A National Government led New Zealand has voted with the majority of the world in Legitimising the Palestinian cause.
While the Labour Government of Australia abstained.
Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr cited “intense pressure” on the Australian government from the US to actively vote against the resolution as the reason for their abstention.
No doubt the same sort of “intense pressure” would have come down on our government too. But instead of buckling and taking the weak and cowardly escape route from this pressure by abstaining. To their credit our government resisted this pressure and came down on the side of justice and decency.
There are questions raised by this anomaly.
How would a Labour Party in office react to such intense US pressure?
Would a Shearer led Labour government have buckled to US pressure as the Australian Labour Government have?
Why has the Labour Leader been silent on this issue?
Why when it has been carried in virtually every other media have there been no posts from The Standard authors on this historic UN vote?
Are the writers for The Standard and the Labour Party so sectarian that they won’t give credit to the government even when it is due?
Is this the reason for The Standard’s silence on this historic event?
If so then it shows why Labour is losing the people’s support. This sort of sectarian pettiness is just boring to most people.
Jenny, “The Standard” doesn’t decide to write or not to write on anything. The Standard is not part of the Labour Party. I have not party voted for Labour for a few elections. Each writer chooses what to write about when they have time. There are many pressing issues relevant to left wing NZ’ers.
Of course celebrate the historic decision. You also should refresh you knowledge of the site policies.
Who would know? As the New Zealand website that has anything to say on the issue, despite two requests for inclusion from myself, has still not been added to The Standard blog roll.
But if you are interested I will provide you some of the latest links.
Fuck off, Jenny. I said it on Twitter when I first saw your comment and I’ll say it again: I, for one, cannot be bothered with the pointless circular flamewar which any post on Israel/Palestine is likely to incite.
Implying that The Standard’s authors are involved in a conspiracy to not post about a certain issue is fucking ludicrous and probably likely to invoke moderator wrath. Didn’t you get a clue on that subject after the Cunliffe leadership beat-up?
Fuck off, Jenny. I said it on Twitter when I first saw your comment and I’ll say it again: I, for one, cannot be bothered with the pointless circular flamewar which any post on Israel/Palestine is likely to incite.
QoT
Thanks Thorns for providing us with your succinct rationalisation for self censorship.
But do you have to be such a potty mouth? This is, after all (hopefully). a family friendly website.
Jenny Jenny Jenny… I now this might come as a surprise to you but the english language includes lots of swear words, swear words that can be used on most blogs within reason to support an argument. As you’re clearly not new to The Standard, you should know that QoT’s clever use of various obscenities is well within the bounds of the moderation policy.
In fact the appropriate use of swear words like QoT’s ‘fuck off’ above is most appropriate and lends itself to the context of the debate by succinctly expressing distaste with your assertions. Fuck is also on the very light side of profanity and these days would only offend those who cannot debate the topic or prudes. Unfortunately your response means I cannot rule you out of fitting comfortably into both these clichés.
I was wondering why the government didn’t cave in to U.S. pressure too. Much as I’m grateful for it doing the right thing the cynic in me sees a trade with the Middle East position here, and a negotiating position with the U.S. – just letting them know that our interests lie in trade. Roll on the TPP.
Yes, while I was pleased to see Palestine get this bit of recognition (though not full member status), my mind yesterday was on some other pressing concerns for Kiwis – like the TPP and Bennett’s nasty little welfare reform bill that started getting submissions.
Agreed, CV. I almost commented that as well, but haven’t seen any MSM comment on how China voted.
Jenny. I signed an on-line petition demanding John Key sign for the UN inclusion of Palestine. The petition was circulated because there was doubt that Key would sign. Perhaps that petition persuaded Key, who knows. By the way, I am a Labour/Green supporter but I don’t see why I should give credit to National for doing a good thing, one of the very few good things they have done, it’s the least they could have done.
Rimutaka Electorate under threat from a weak Labour MP.
SInce Chris Hipkins was handed Paul Swain’s seat in 2008 it has been downhill for Labour and up, up and up for National in the Rimutaka Electorate (Upper Hutt).
Chris Hipkins is letting the National candidate, Jonathan Fletcher, eat his lunch and has no response. Seemingly Chris only likes fighting Labour people at Conferences and on TV. Chris is sitting in his comfort zone, the Parliamentary offices and Bellamy’s, where he previously played at being a staffer for Mallard, while Fletcher is hitting the streets of Upper Hutt.
Have a look at these figures:
The Labour party vote went from 48% in 2005 to 33% in 2011, while National went from 34% to 45% at the same time. The same poor performance also applies to the Electorate vote. Swain’s 55% has become Hipkin’s 51%, while Fletcher took the 2005 30% to 42% in 2011.
Hipkin’s intemperate behaviour at Conference and on TV has lost him much of the little personal local support he had. He never had much experience outside of the isolated space that is the Labour offices.
Maybe Rimutaka needs a more temperate and personable candidate in 2014.
Yes, well I’m a dyed in the wool, never voted for anything else other than Labour votor — and I sure as hell won’t be giving that little creep my vote in the next election!
Hipkins has fallen on his face as a whip, in his rush to get a portfolio. Whips who do not have the respect of the majority of Caucus become ineffectual.
Flunking in the electorate AND in his first adult role is a poor show. Screaming at members at Conference was damaging. Calling Cunliffe a liar on TV was obnoxious.
Was he trying to emulate Mallard? Is there something wrong with him?
Labour Party membership numbers in Rimutaka are not as healthy as they once were.
Not that they have ever been that strong, but according to locals under Hipkins the trend has been less promising. It may mark the over-emphasis he has on internal caucus activities and an under-emphasis on building up the party presence in his own electorate.
Well, I’m a member – what’s the process for getting him pushed from within and getting someone else?
Not even sure what the forum is for gauging local members’ support for dumping him
I’m not sure that I would condone a hostile de-selection of a sitting MP as it is a big step. To be serious, you would want to source a copy of the party’s constitution and become very familiar with all the relevant sections.
I’m assuming that there is some sort of democratic process whereby electorate candidates are selected.
As I say, I don’t know how this works, but surely if the members want a different representative it is their right to vote for a new one.
As for him being a sitting MP, It may well be that after the next election he will be that only if his list position is high enough.
As is said above, he is bleeding support amongst the general population of the electorate. The Nats spent a relatively large amount of resources in the electorate prior to the last election, I think because they smelt blood on the water.
This all adds up to a very tenuous position in what used to be a pretty red seat, both for party vote and electorate.
Adding the fact that he is, in my opinion, not a suitable candidate for me, as a consistent Labour voter to vote for leads me to believe that, should the local members be in the same mindset, he should be removed and replaced.
Actually, fuck it, I just read down comments regarding Tamihere.
If I can make some small contribution to taking out these bastards one at a time – I’m in.
There is a story going around the traps. In the house. Hipkins stands on the half million Ingram report on field. Even then he still comes across as school kid.
“It’s a sad indictment on society that this wee girl, there’s nowhere that she can go to be safe and so we leave her with a mother who is refusing a drug test even after she’s killed the little girl’s elder sister. It makes me feel ill.”
That quote appears to be a complete misrepresentation of the situation. Not surprising though, it’s from the sensible sentencing people. From what I can tell the child is being left with the mother, because to remove her at this stage would be incredibly damaging to the child. The judge made it clear that if that weren’t the case, the woman would go to jail.
Sensible sentencing would be to give the woman prescribed drugs, so she stops having to spend so much money on meth. Give her the support to stabilise her life. Those things will help the child.
Lyndon Hood’s latest, This Movie Sucks: NZ politics is a middle-earth script, and Hood makes a pitch to be a new writer for it.
How do I get a job with this nest of genius satirists?…
The older generation of satirists came out of newsrooms, but there seems to have been some kind of handover to a new team without so much journalistic experience. Bloggers, probably. Artsy types who don’t have that strong a grip of policy issues. Don’t quite grasp how it’s supposed to work. They’ll be the ones who decided to make a renegade German file sharer the most politically effective person in the country.
But they miss important details. Like how the ministers keep talking about the Treasury’s surplus as if that’s the same thing as fixing the national economy. That’s silly….
It’s hardly Shakespearian.
(Speaking of which: ‘Cunliffe wanders mad in the wilderness, giving stirring speeches to trees and rock on the need for economic management that reflect the real needs of the people.’ You can have that one for free.)
Or I could do the media: I have an idea for a subplot where they all start doing policy analysis.
But ultimately I’d like to do an episode of John Key. Who wouldn’t? The legendary postmodern horror story of a PM who only grows stronger the more he is mocked – to the point where his personal embarrassments provide a useful distraction from ongoing trainwrecks around actual policies. Whose actually name is (qui?) a dry multilingual pun. Love your work, Braunias.
No wonder Key is behind NZ doing some Dr Who eps! It’s a rellie of his!
-the VelociRapture (just fooling a round) Rock on The Standard. Live and Thinking Back at ya!
(we’ll be here 24/7 bringing you the best of what the Left has to offer, spinning those Platters 360 with
no interuptions)
So Joe, where do you see it all heading then, if you had to voice more than just some links, and actually put up a projection of how you saw things playing out, say over the nexy 10-30 years?
In a nutshell muzza, human activities appear to be influencing the planets heat sink, the oceans, and warmer water will contribute more moisture to the equatorial atmosphere so larger systems of longer duration pushing further north/south will be generated causing a rising number of severe weather events and dramatic shifts in rainfall distribution that will almost certainly result in agricultural/oceanic resource catastrophes which, when coupled with other resource shortages, will create conflict.
A survey of New Zealand postgraduate students has found that 40% are thinking of giving up studying because their eligibility for the student allowance is being stripped away next year.
That particular issue was raised by Green co-leader Metiria Turei today on Q+A… Both Judith Collins and Peter Dunne scoffed at her. Meanwhile they spread their propaganda on thickly about needing to increase innovation through education, but as I see it their policy changes are at complete odds with ensuring New Zealand has enough trained and skilled graduates to meet demand.
A potential 40% decline in graduations shouldn’t be simply dismissed by saying the research is incorrect. I mean how many times can National say the statistics showing their utter failure as a government are wrong and get away with it?
Fancy that! John Armstrong is praising Labour for getting its act together. And under Mr Shearer’s leadership too: Bold policy is a return to the old ways, and a worry for National.
Housing, a big part of Shearer’s keynote conference speech, is Labour’s bold policy focus as it promises to build 100,000 affordable homes in 10 years.
Housing, a big part of Shearer’s keynote conference speech, is Labour’s bold policy focus as it promises to build 100,000 affordable homes in 10 years. Photo / Mark Mitchell
NZ has been a financial hub for the globally corrupted since 1961 when we were handed over to the IMF/WB and thus those who sit behind those entities!
Most everything that has become wrong with/in NZ, stems from that! We handed over the gold reserves and most likely signed away rights to resources under the “conditions” of the loans received at the time, which would account for the way we the the DI.MI.SI attitude going!
Seeing the handover of our dairy industry now in full flight, farm debt a huge problem, having already lost control of food production by and large, along with the disputed water rights and energy generation, will complete the removal on NZ to ever be able to self sustain, we are at the mercy of foreign controlled entities, and we have not/will not be shown mercy, just look at what is going on to understand.
Personal Debt, City Debt, Farm Debt, Student Debt, National Debt!
New Lows In Broadcasting & Has National Started A Smear Campaign Against Winston Peters/ NZ First?
I saw what I thought was a disgusting news item on TV 3 the other night. At the centre of the headline is NZ First MP Brendan Horan. The story first surfaced on Sunday in print & tv, in all intent & purpose it to appeared to be a family dispute over a late mothers estate not uncommon when $$ involved. Hearing Winston Peters explain a family member had approached him some months ago with allegations against Horan, Peters said “show me some proof of any wrong doing” according to Peters ‘that never happened.’ Then this character goes to the media with a copy of a amendment document to their late Mothers Will, for all in sundry to see. An extremely vexatious & bizarre thing to do to a family member with a such a public profile. It seemed ‘suspect’ to hear she was terminally ill when the amendment was made. Having sadly known people in that state, drugs provides relief from pain, at the price of being mentally muddled as a result. So to me keeping an open mind, an element of duress has to be considered.
Back to the TV 3 news item that was bad taste & what aroused my suspicions of a politically motivated attack. What I found offensive was the filming at the Horan’s families late mothers grave site. In my view this was a bridge too far & breached decency from the broadcaster. Totally unacceptable & disrespectful to a family still morning the death ( died August ) of a loved one.
Secondly the reporter Brooke Sabin appeared to
the group I was watching the item with to show a sycophantic pleasure in covering this story. One of our group said “I wonder if he is related to National, Northland PM Mike Sabin?”
Bingo! It just happens to be the reporter Brook Sabin is Mike Sabin’s son!
Winston Peters & Mike Sabin have a history of bad blood. Without appearing to be a conspiracy theorist is it a coincidence his son took up this story? and is it the start of a politically motived attack to knock Peters out again? Have Crosby Texter had a part to play?
Your Opinions would be great 🙂
Skinny. I had a similar reaction to to about the hounding of Brendan Horan by that twerp on TV3. Seems that those worms like Garner, Gower etc enjoy hounding politicians from all parties EXCEPT National and Act. Biased?
Marsman yes it wouldn’t surprise me if Nat daddy got straight on the blower to his son Brook, had him chase for the story & inflict as much damage as he could milk. NZ First have got a few runs on the board lately against Key & Co. I can recall Horan championing something against the Nats in the House & in the media a few months back, so any opportunity to smear him sounds about right.
Did I not hear/read that Horan’s mother made a codicil a few mnonths before she died, at that same time two Doctor’s signed affidavits that she was fully “complis mentis” to make such a codicil so that nobody could say she was not right in her dottage.
Fox ‘someone’ has obviously put her up to do that. Did that someone call a family meeting to raise their concerns as you would? Or did they choose not too? It appears the later to me which is harsh on a lady dying. Another negative against that person.
Peters has done the right thing in standing Horan down. While a forensic anaylsis of Horan’s mother’s bank account is being done the media will feast on the statements of those involved. If Horan is defamed he can take this further and Peters comes out clean and he can then say it was a media beat up. If Horan has made false statements Peter’s will probably dump him if Horan does not resign. Peters has principles compared to Key.
Horan’s mother is being exploited by the media and family members appear to be in for the cash grab.
I want to know why the family did not appoint a lawyer to arrange the mother’s will when she was alive?
[ deep sigh ] A complete rinse and repeat from the climate change denialists, complete with reverential reference to the “Hockey Stick Illusion”. What is it with these people – do they think that if they repeat their lies often enough the science will disappear? In this instance, though, they are ignoring the science and attempting an “Unsworth” – attack the messenger. I beginning to wonder if perhaps the planet needs a climate catastrophe to bestir the somnamulent.
Actually, that’s exactly what they think. Or at least if they repeat the lies often enough, the science will be disguised by the impression that there is still fair-minded debate about the basics. So therefore the science that is reported is “balanced” by the other side of the “debate”. So the reality of the situation is disguised from as many people for as long as possible.
Going from LP’s random selective bans for “pointless abuse”, that should be getting you a week McFlock!
The week I got was helpful to appreciate that people just can’t/won’t see what is going on around them, perhaps its all just too much, perhaps they don’t have the faculties, most likely a combo of these, and more…
If my post seem more blunt at times, its because my patience for whats happening to NZ is running way out, and for those who won’t wrap their fat heads around the why, ran out long ago, so blunt it will be, along the way!
RL – No it was a serious question, as I was going to give a first hand account of what I have just seen happen in the AKL district courts but thought better of it, good call!
Frankly its getting too easy to be banned, and the reasons I am getting banned are not remotely evenly applied elsewhere, which indicates someone(s) have a got a beef.
As I said to LP its his sandpit, you guys police it, do what you want.
Just apply some consistancy, it looks like bias otherwise!
[RL: If you were trying to make a serious point you went about it very maladroitly. To the point where it just looked like nasty, unimaginative abuse to me and everyone else. I’ll give you one shot at convincing me there was more to this than what it looked like; otherwise the two weeks stands.
Moderation is not a machine; it’s a loose collective of people trying to read many hundreds of comments a day over a number of active threads. We’ll never be objective or consistent, and I’ve yet to see anyone we’ve ever moderated think we were being’fair’ at the time.]
I didn’t understand muzza’s comment to McFlock (it was completely context-less and then later not explained). But muzza did comment a couple of weeks ago, seriously, about child abuse rings, so I assumed the comment today was from something they have been thinking about.
It’s not my call, but I saw the comment as social ineptness or disconnect rather than tr*lling.
Hi Weka, there a a small number on these boards who have the nous to try take in wider context than any singular days posts, so good on you for that.
@ RL – Short version – For most of this year ive seen affidavits with impacts/links outside AKL to the suspected/known abuses. One particular case continues to be deferred, with the defendant having a 20+ year history of various abuses, “unchecked”. Reasons have been spurious at best, and the prosecution seemingly looking to make it go away and/or stuff it up. NZ is a shit pile of this type of behaviour, which many have the misfortune to be much closer to than they are aware!
Thats all I’m going to say on it, unless there is further which I can link to via the MSM or the LF link, which was in my post Weka pointed out above..
[RL: That’s gives it a better context, I’ll rescind the ban. The original line directed at McFlock was however clumsy and offensive, and on face value was always going to get the wrong kind of attention from a moderator. ]
Reckon you’ll have some more time to appreciate that superior intellect and wisdom you imagine you possess Muzza, when the moderators catch your latest piece of offensive and gratuitous malice. Do think of us, wont you.
And the point is, its got little to nothing to do with intellect, thats the primary issue. Most people are well capable of understanding, if only they started appreciating/accepting that there is likely, very little opportunity left to slow the sinking ship down.
[RL: The “how are the local pedo rings going down there” crack is not acceptable. It’s in the same category of boring old jibes like “your meds need adjusting”; ie unimaginative and gratuitously offensive. ]
Telling Aucklanders which buildings are likely to collapse in a moderate earthquake could generate panic or blacklisting of those properties, says a panel that heard public submissions on a draft earthquake-prone policy.
“The likelihood that the information will be misconstrued is significant as shown in the case of information released to the media earlier this year,” said the panel.
Ms Webster, who chaired the panel, said yesterday it was a difficult call because it involved private property versus the public right to know.
Good to know who contols Auckland then, as if thats not clear enough!
Has there been anything further to this, other the 393 buildings which have been named?
What is with your intrusion into the bedrooms of consenting adults.
If Mckellen wants to marry his beau when what business is it of yours? There are greater threats to society than a couple of old queens wanting to exchange vows.
Wow, Freud would have a field day working out your fixation with “The Gays” and marriage K_P. Whatever gets you up in the morning I suppose. I was surprised after Keys hatred of “Gay” Red Shirts that he was quite cosy mincing down the “Gay” Red Carpet. Anything for Lord Peter Jackson eh.
Good heavens! The NZ Herald is reporting that the NZ Council is letting Tamihere reapply for party membership. It just doesn’t make sense for the Party heirachy to bend over backwards to ensure all natural justice for Tamihere compared with none for David Cunliffe. Maybe they should have spent the money for some decent legal opinions focussing Tamihere’s behaviour and statements against the test for party membership. Probably the Council was more influenced by Shearer’s support for his mate.
But its sure as heck not feeling like the Labour Party is the political party for me anymore.
I have had a gut full of this! A handful of Labour caucus members who do not want the Labour Party to be the Labour Party but do not want to go away either, and determinedly go on making room for their flunkies. Is there something we can do about it as members, apart from get very angry, and work out whether to vote Mana or Green? I can even imagine the Greens beating Labour in the next election, and Labour forming a coalition with National to keep the riff raff out. What lengths will these mediocrities go to in order to keep their places among “the people in the know.”
Is there something we can do about it as members, apart from get very angry, and work out whether to vote Mana or Green?
Hi Olwyn, I enjoy your comments, and its interesting to read the frustration in your words leaping off the screen of this one.
You could try going to police about the fact that there are criminal elements inside the LP, but it would not go very far, because, well the cops are bent too. Of course JT is wanted inside the LP by certain factions, he’s a natural fit given whats currently going on! The bloke is mates and more with Clint Rickards FFS, among others, and supported his application as a duty solicitor.
How is it that these types of people are controlling our world, and they continue to be elevated, or pulled back in, either way, they influence our lives? The answer should be self evident by now surely!
Hearing LP members being driven to consider voting elsewhere is exactly what is wanted, because voting for them, achieves the same thing.
I’m really not sure what the solution is, but I do know that options narrowing, quickly!
Why?, JT appeals to a tremendous amount of people out there, he’s a real asset to Labour.
Get him a seat to run in as soon as possible, the New Lynn seat’s coming free, stick him in that.
Yet when he ran for Mayor in west Auckland, long term mayor Bob Harvey still won – and at a time when many would have gone for someone different and younger, if only they had an alternative to vote for with more cred with the voters than JT.
Because his politics and personal beliefs are obviously “socially conservative”, or (to put it into the patois of the streets) “fucked in the head and a hundred years out of date”.
He should join National, or Density’s front organisation. He’ll get on okay with those equally atavistic folk. But even from a purely practical point of view, why would any party want as a member someone who publicly disenfranchises (even loathes) more than half of its other members and voters?
Left wing, even by pretension only, parties need to display integrity to their policies and principles. Giving jobs to shiny clowns just to get the small-minded vote is what tory parties do (not being as hobbled by principles or adherence to policy, of course).
Having just rejoined after many years in the wilderness I am gutted once again by the blatant disregard of the memberships wants and needs, I’m back off the greens again as an even more committed activist, what next for Labour, maybe Michael Lhaws will be invited to join as well!!
I guess the next thing we’ll hear is that King/Mallard have promised Tamihere the New Lynn seat. Olwyn – I just don’t know what we can do – I feel so powerless to stop Labour heading away from my values.
Strategically, I think I’ll hang on till February in case a member vote on the leadership is triggered. I think such a vote would pull everyone together and we could unite behind the leader whoever that was.
But the Council are a disgrace – they need to stop being so weak. I’d heard Grant Robertson has been stacking his people onto Council and LECs up and down the country – it seems to be coming true. If there is no member vote in the New Year, I’ll walk after that. I’ve had a gutsful too! And this Labour Party has moved too far away for me to embrace.
A swing to the right. A swing to the lowest common denominator. Victory for red-necks. If Robertson thinks that Tamahere will win votes in west Auckland he is a fool. We already have a good voting count. Westies remember that Tamahere walked from the Teust with $190k after tax the last time .
The labour leadership has lost the plot.
As a Westie (one who didn’t vote for Tamihere as mayor – ABT), I am pretty disgusted – well will be if he is selected as a candidate. He abused the Labour Party during the Conference – and indulged in some gleeful gay-baiting. I haven’t seen Cunliffe do anything like that.
When you consider how Cunliffe has been punished for doing so much for Labour, and how Tamihere is being rewarded for blatant destructiveness …. there is only one possible interpretation, deliberate provocation.
I’m thinking that the right-wing caucus faction is quite happy to burn off as much left-wing membership as possible before the February election.
I’m thinking that the right-wing caucus faction is quite happy to burn off as much left-wing membership as possible before the February election.
Well, they’re in for a shock then aren’t they. Everybody is hanging in there for the February election, and there’s even more left-wingers who have just joined the Party.
karol there are two systems of justice in play in the Labour Party at present. The justice meted out to those inside the King/Mallard leadership club, and that imposed on those on the outer. The real pity is that there is no effective check and balance against this by the Labour Party President et al of the Council. Shame on them all. And the Labour Party won’t be a sorted force to be rekoned with in an election until this double standard is weeded out. Unfortunately Shearer is now fully implicated – no hiding behind the King/Mallard apron on this. If you were waiting to see we’re Shearer would lead…..have you got the pattern yet?
Have been wondering why John Armstrong was praising Shearer so cloyingly today in the Herald. Wasn’t Robertson said to be the one Labour person to get on well with The Gallery? Is his relationship with them so good that there some hidden agenda or a ‘reached understanding between certain parties’ such that one David can be so hammered by the media for apparently doing nothing,whilst Shearer is praised to the heights for an average speech by autocue and now Armstrong penning this oddity http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10851136 Not to mention the strange return of JT.
So many things about the caucus since the Labour Conference are beginning to seem ‘not quite right’ or maybe ‘too right’ if you will excuse the pun. Is there a hidden Game (of Thrones) Plan, and why?
I think Grant Robertson’s relationship with the Gallery is actually just a referral from the right faction boss Annette King. King has been “feeding” and “grooming” John Armstrong, Vernon Small and Claire Trevett for a long time.
It is a very interesting exercise to look back on each of these Gallery journalists articles – you can see clear patterns in their reporting. I’ve always considered Small and Trevett to be lightweights but once upon a time I had some respect for John Armstrong. But even he doesn’t seem able to find an original thought in the past year.
Looks like Robertson has decided that he is the embodiment of all the true Labour ideals and so therefore everything he does to ensure his leadership of the party is justified. Omelettes and eggs and so on. He forgets that when you say that the means justifies the end, you forget that the means is the end.
if it is that hard to prize open the grip of those usual suspects in both the Labour caucus and the mainstream media, what is the point of a challenge in February 2014? Surely a loss would be turned into a win, a win turned into a loss.
yes I saw that they have “approved” JT *sigh*. anyway NSW “above normal Max temp and fire season
also,
but then “I’m only happy when it rains…pour your misery down on me…Garbage.
BBC-Assange “Swedes have their heads in the ground”
Senior U.S Republican source-the fiscal cliff regulation agreements (not) “are really going nowhere”
Last minute folks, roll up…roll up…
furthermore on CNN,” disappointing U.S and Eurozone economic figures”
RT-“The Electronic Intifada” hmmmm.
Endgame in the M.E.? Israel on the defensive; and we all know how a dog behaves when it’s cornered.
meanwhile, on SKY; “growing threat of U.S storms occuring; naturally occuring exceptional period of
Hurricanes (“and I’m gettin blown away…I am just a dreamer but you are just a dream…you could have been any thing to me) AND Climate Change, oh well, it’s not like there haven’t been signs!
ol’ Bri-“there goes His Hero…watch him as he burns”
The Breeders? “Cannonball”; is that a Deal Kim?
More Horror Road Crashes…say no more
Tamihere in. Now there is something to think about.
Arm was strong heralding the “power of the state to build houses” as scribed by the Parker Pen
(not a fan of “chippy” but then what would i know)
“Shot down in flames…aint it a shame…to be shot down in flames…yet we could always build a RONs
I’ve made my calls over the last hour and this seems to be correct. Grant Robertson also spoke strongly in favour of giving Tamihere another chance.
In addition to courting the Maori vote, the strategy appears to be to help Labour cast off any remaining image of being ‘bleeding heart’ left wing. Jones and Tamihere to be given wide latitude in this.
I can’t help thinking that this call from the leadership is misguided.
It’s an insult to women and gays for the LP leadership to even consider having Tamihere stand! Definitely misguided. No principles! Anything to get elected and keep their status in the LP.
Yes its part of a concerted strategy by the Leadership team and its puppeteers (King/Mallard) to take Labour to the right. Roger Douglas must be laughing out loud today.
And that silly, weak Moira Coatsworth says its about “the need to be a party in unity and move on together” (TV3 News tonight). When did Tamihere EVER contribute to unity in the Party?!!!!
If that sexist and animal abuser is in the Labour Party then I am no longer a Labour supporter. I will be voting Greens unless David Cunliffe gets in and shows a fraction of the common sense of the idiots in the party at present.
Well, I have been content to vote Green while waiting for Labour to become a credible left wing party again, i.e. promoting social justice for all sections of the community rather than pandering to the middle-class neoliberal media.
So, now, in order to try to attract a section of the community they haven’t supported well-enough fr a while, they want to jettison another section of the community – but not their allegiance to the media & neoliberal consensus. They are truly a confused bunch.
If Tamihere stands as a candidate in West Auckland, I’ll do something I’ve never done before – join a party (the Greens) and go out on the streets campaigning for them. That’s how angry the idea of a return of Tamihere makes me.
Why what’s wrong with Tamihere?
John will be a lifeline for the party when it has it leadership election in February.
As the labour party has got no one else.
well, just for a Rogue opinion, this “Tamihere” thing is not going to end well; might as well have pulled
the pin and placed said pin between teeth; Jesus Wept, but what would he know as Benghazi is suggesting? A big fat diabetic NO to JT is my opionion; this is going to end in tears and that is my last
word on the matter; very sad day, yet he is not a candidate yet God Help us 🙂
meanwhile, Christchurch does not appear well at all, not at all, no Siree Gerry.
meanwhile, a new level of “ruthlessness” in Syria and TPTB have shut the “net” down; suplise suplise.
meanwhile, great infrastructure support for East Timor from China, God Bless China and the CCP
(we look forward to the third-year plan implementation)
🙂
To select Tamahere and demote Cunliffe in the one month is a direct snub to the working class credentials of Labour.
To suggest Tamahere is there to encourage a racially and tolerant image for Labour is a joke. He appeals to pakeha rednecks who will never vote for a left Labour.
This is direct challenge to the ethnic Sector, Carmel Sepuloni, David Cunliffe and all the members who voted for a modern open democratic Labour Party.
Shearer and Robertson must think the Conference was a vote of confidence in their stunning performance of the past year
Shearer and Ribrrtson must think the Caucus 100% vote meant they had won control back from the members!
NO, NO. NO.
Shearer and Robertson are in for a wake-up call.
I am afraid you are quite correct Jazzabelle. My gut instinct to turn from Shearer after his unjust and distasteful actions last week is now justified. He showed his true colours then and now others are being revealed to be wearing his mark and it is not the mark or colour of the type of person I can support let alone unite with. Moira Coatsworth is whistling in the wind as far as I am concerned. I feel sure nothing good is going to come of this. If it is possible I will vote accordingly in February.
I’m not so sure they are in for a wake up call! King/Mallard have a very firm and vicious grip. And the Leadership team does whatever they suggest because they don’t actually have the skills to lead.
And why? Because King/Mallard do not qualify for a Parliamentary pension. They cannot afford to leave their Parliamentary incomes for a goodly while.
King/Mallard are poisonous and the Party hierachy needs to grow a spine and rise up and challenge them.
I don’t know about the hierarchy (I do – they don’t have a spine), but the party membership has always had a spine and it did indeed rise up. Fingers crossed for the coming months.
The way we’ve been trained to serve often renders us as little more than machines that do given tasks, and it cuts us off from what it is to truly give of ourselves both to our own beings and to others.
We need to see each other. I really believe that that is the only way to save the planet from whatever mass destructions we can forecast, be they political, economic, or environmental. We need to know each other, and not just the broad, dissociative stuff we put out there to appeal to what we think most people will like most of the time, but what lies beneath that.
Still mulling it over so I’m not going to give any personal insights.
Thanks DTB. I take it to mean we need to know ourselves, and to not be afraid of offending by being who we are, in order to truly communicate with and understand others.
So I don’t feel quite so bad about commenting in anger,re Tamihere and the confused principles of Labour tonight…. though that may just be self-serving.
True Price asks several questions about ubiquitous products, (e.g. food items, clothing and electronics, etc.):
1. Is this item a want or a need?
2. What are the effects of this item, both positive and negative, on you as a consumer, on other people, on animals, and on the environment?
3. What systems perpetuate this item?
4. What would be an alternative that does more good and less harm, and if no such alternatives exist, what systems would need to change to make alternatives commonplace?
All such good questions and likely that most couldn’t answer them but I found this paragraph most interesting:
Almost every time I do this activity at U.S. teachers’ conferences, some audience members feel flummoxed by the challenge of bringing such an activity into their curricula. Forced to teach to seemingly endless standardized tests, many cannot see how such a multidisciplinary, critical and creative thinking activity could fit into the requirements they must fulfill, even though the exploration of these items and the process of answering these questions can fit beautifully and powerfully into language arts, science, math, health and social studies courses. Exploring such questions can also become an elective or add greater educational meaning and purpose to courses in economics, geography, psychology, environmental science, ethics and more.
Because that is exactly where National Standards will take us. To a point where even the teachers won’t be able to comprehend the world around them.
Nice link. I”m trying to think of the last thing I bought and then asking the questions. Defining what is a need and what is a want is tricky. Needs that maintain current standard of living, or needs that ensure survival, or something in between?
There are hundreds of other links on Tamihere but I guess the Labour hierarchy don’t have Google.
The archive on his Radio Live rants will be keeping the Nats’ hit squad busy and happy – some really nasty stuff. The only possible defence would have been “it was a long time ago, he’s turned over a new leaf” – and yes, in theory anybody could .
Except Tamihere was attacking Labour only a few days ago (“headhunters gang” etc). He hasn’t changed, and it’s not even clear that the idiots in charge want him to.
Tamihere has money, staff, volunteers, position, networks, and major media access.
and that winning smile for the girls.
that adds up to the capacity to take Dr Sharples out pretty easy.
Either National or Labour would find him candidate material in those circumstances.
Perhaps like Jones he is more suited to National. So for that reason alone Labour choose to keep them.
Or perhaps rather Shearer needs someone to shore up his numbers once Beaumont replaces Jones after the Auditer-General’s report is out.
Also odd that Twyford is supporting Tamihere throughout. Is Twyford trying to take out Sepulina in Waitakere selection with Tamihere? Quite a darkness in operation there, a chilled dish of revenge served.
*Groan* Twyford is supporting Tamihere? If so, that increases the reasons for me getting active and becoming a Green Party member. Twyford is my MP. Sepuloni is still a more promising candidate for Waitakere than Tamihere, IMO. She came within a whisker last time. And since then all we’ve seen is Bennett’s vicious attacks on the least powerful.
Is Labour just becoming the Men’s Party?
And Tamihere is a big supporter of Charter Schools.
Why is it that no-one in government or in the Treasury will answer two straight forward questions?
1. Why is it acceptable for commercial banks to create money that did not previously exist, out of thin air, but not acceptable for the Bank of England to create that same money, not as a debt, but as a credit?
2. When debt it is what funds the economy, can they explain how you grow the economy whilst cutting debt?
Answer those questions and you are on the way to solving Britain’s financial problems.
I ran across a recent essay from The Brothers Krynn, which attempts to map common horror monsters onto the Seven Deadly Sins: https://canadianculturecorner.substack.com/p/horror-monsters-and-vice My interest, however, is not in the meat of the piece, but rather the opening paragraph: It is an interesting fact that in recent decades, Vampires have ...
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
COMMENTARY:By Ronny Kareni Since the atrocious footage of the suffering of an indigenous Papuan man reverberates in the heart of Puncak by the brute force of Indonesia’s army in early February, shocking tactics deployed by those in power to silence critics has been unfolding. Nowhere is this more evident ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
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While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
The unidentified foreign intelligence operation discussed in a scathing report by New Zealand’s Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) last week appears to be a controversial United States intelligence system. The IGIS report said the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) decision to host a foreign system from 2012-2020 was “improper” ...
A National Government led New Zealand has voted with the majority of the world in Legitimising the Palestinian cause.
While the Labour Government of Australia abstained.
Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr cited “intense pressure” on the Australian government from the US to actively vote against the resolution as the reason for their abstention.
No doubt the same sort of “intense pressure” would have come down on our government too. But instead of buckling and taking the weak and cowardly escape route from this pressure by abstaining. To their credit our government resisted this pressure and came down on the side of justice and decency.
There are questions raised by this anomaly.
How would a Labour Party in office react to such intense US pressure?
Would a Shearer led Labour government have buckled to US pressure as the Australian Labour Government have?
Why has the Labour Leader been silent on this issue?
Why when it has been carried in virtually every other media have there been no posts from The Standard authors on this historic UN vote?
Are the writers for The Standard and the Labour Party so sectarian that they won’t give credit to the government even when it is due?
Is this the reason for The Standard’s silence on this historic event?
If so then it shows why Labour is losing the people’s support. This sort of sectarian pettiness is just boring to most people.
Jenny, “The Standard” doesn’t decide to write or not to write on anything. The Standard is not part of the Labour Party. I have not party voted for Labour for a few elections. Each writer chooses what to write about when they have time. There are many pressing issues relevant to left wing NZ’ers.
Of course celebrate the historic decision. You also should refresh you knowledge of the site policies.
Plus all ts authors are vounteers. Jenny, why not write a post and ask for it be put up as a guest?
Well. Credit where credit is due.
All credit to who-ever in the NACT Government decided to do the right thing in this case.
Done
Let’s see if this or any other post on this vote appears on The Standard, or whether the sectarian cone of silence will persist.
Why claim it’s sectarian? Seems to me it’s just a bit boring actually. Folks are waiting to see what it means. What actually happens.
Though I realise that you think posting overwrought propaganda is the most important thing in the world.
how’s Syria going, anyhoo?
Who would know? As the New Zealand website that has anything to say on the issue, despite two requests for inclusion from myself, has still not been added to The Standard blog roll.
But if you are interested I will provide you some of the latest links.
http://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2012/11/30/sunni-leaders-gaining-clout-in-mideast-impacting-gaza/
http://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2012/11/30/us-weighs-supplying-weapons-to-syria-rebels-and-turkey/
http://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2012/11/29/syrian-rebels-turn-looted-missiles-on-assads-aircraft/
Fuck off, Jenny. I said it on Twitter when I first saw your comment and I’ll say it again: I, for one, cannot be bothered with the pointless circular flamewar which any post on Israel/Palestine is likely to incite.
Implying that The Standard’s authors are involved in a conspiracy to not post about a certain issue is fucking ludicrous and probably likely to invoke moderator wrath. Didn’t you get a clue on that subject after the Cunliffe leadership beat-up?
You must be fucking new around here.
lol
Your support for self censorship around the Palestinian cause. Doesn’t apply to the use of pointless profanity and personal abuse.
I find your support for both of these things offensive.
[popcorn + hopes to learn new words]
Wait a minute, I’ve got a reply for you somewhere … oh, here it is.
(Sorry, McFlock, but Jenny ain’t deserving shit else in terms of a response from me.)
well, it is the end of a weekday 🙂
Jenny Jenny Jenny… I now this might come as a surprise to you but the english language includes lots of swear words, swear words that can be used on most blogs within reason to support an argument. As you’re clearly not new to The Standard, you should know that QoT’s clever use of various obscenities is well within the bounds of the moderation policy.
In fact the appropriate use of swear words like QoT’s ‘fuck off’ above is most appropriate and lends itself to the context of the debate by succinctly expressing distaste with your assertions. Fuck is also on the very light side of profanity and these days would only offend those who cannot debate the topic or prudes. Unfortunately your response means I cannot rule you out of fitting comfortably into both these clichés.
I was wondering why the government didn’t cave in to U.S. pressure too. Much as I’m grateful for it doing the right thing the cynic in me sees a trade with the Middle East position here, and a negotiating position with the U.S. – just letting them know that our interests lie in trade. Roll on the TPP.
China.
Yes, China as well. A whole lot of trade bang for the vote buck.
Yes, while I was pleased to see Palestine get this bit of recognition (though not full member status), my mind yesterday was on some other pressing concerns for Kiwis – like the TPP and Bennett’s nasty little welfare reform bill that started getting submissions.
Agreed, CV. I almost commented that as well, but haven’t seen any MSM comment on how China voted.
How countries voted here.
Jenny. I signed an on-line petition demanding John Key sign for the UN inclusion of Palestine. The petition was circulated because there was doubt that Key would sign. Perhaps that petition persuaded Key, who knows. By the way, I am a Labour/Green supporter but I don’t see why I should give credit to National for doing a good thing, one of the very few good things they have done, it’s the least they could have done.
Propagandist Jeffrey Goldberg has an idea.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-26/how-palestinians-can-finally-achieve-independence.html
Personally I dont find the idea of ghettoing the Palestinians in their own little corrall is acceptable.
A single fedrative state for both Isreali Jews and Palestinian Arabs is the way to go.
Rimutaka Electorate under threat from a weak Labour MP.
SInce Chris Hipkins was handed Paul Swain’s seat in 2008 it has been downhill for Labour and up, up and up for National in the Rimutaka Electorate (Upper Hutt).
Chris Hipkins is letting the National candidate, Jonathan Fletcher, eat his lunch and has no response. Seemingly Chris only likes fighting Labour people at Conferences and on TV. Chris is sitting in his comfort zone, the Parliamentary offices and Bellamy’s, where he previously played at being a staffer for Mallard, while Fletcher is hitting the streets of Upper Hutt.
Have a look at these figures:
The Labour party vote went from 48% in 2005 to 33% in 2011, while National went from 34% to 45% at the same time. The same poor performance also applies to the Electorate vote. Swain’s 55% has become Hipkin’s 51%, while Fletcher took the 2005 30% to 42% in 2011.
Hipkin’s intemperate behaviour at Conference and on TV has lost him much of the little personal local support he had. He never had much experience outside of the isolated space that is the Labour offices.
Maybe Rimutaka needs a more temperate and personable candidate in 2014.
Yes, well I’m a dyed in the wool, never voted for anything else other than Labour votor — and I sure as hell won’t be giving that little creep my vote in the next election!
Chris Hipkins, the ‘Accidental’ Labour MP – sounds like National has another very very good friend in the Labour caucus ?
Hipkins should be given a $40,000 bonus.
Hipkins has fallen on his face as a whip, in his rush to get a portfolio. Whips who do not have the respect of the majority of Caucus become ineffectual.
Flunking in the electorate AND in his first adult role is a poor show. Screaming at members at Conference was damaging. Calling Cunliffe a liar on TV was obnoxious.
Was he trying to emulate Mallard? Is there something wrong with him?
Labour Party membership numbers in Rimutaka are not as healthy as they once were.
Not that they have ever been that strong, but according to locals under Hipkins the trend has been less promising. It may mark the over-emphasis he has on internal caucus activities and an under-emphasis on building up the party presence in his own electorate.
Well, I’m a member – what’s the process for getting him pushed from within and getting someone else?
Not even sure what the forum is for gauging local members’ support for dumping him
I’m not sure that I would condone a hostile de-selection of a sitting MP as it is a big step. To be serious, you would want to source a copy of the party’s constitution and become very familiar with all the relevant sections.
I’m assuming that there is some sort of democratic process whereby electorate candidates are selected.
As I say, I don’t know how this works, but surely if the members want a different representative it is their right to vote for a new one.
As for him being a sitting MP, It may well be that after the next election he will be that only if his list position is high enough.
As is said above, he is bleeding support amongst the general population of the electorate. The Nats spent a relatively large amount of resources in the electorate prior to the last election, I think because they smelt blood on the water.
This all adds up to a very tenuous position in what used to be a pretty red seat, both for party vote and electorate.
Adding the fact that he is, in my opinion, not a suitable candidate for me, as a consistent Labour voter to vote for leads me to believe that, should the local members be in the same mindset, he should be removed and replaced.
Actually, fuck it, I just read down comments regarding Tamihere.
If I can make some small contribution to taking out these bastards one at a time – I’m in.
carry on please
There is a story going around the traps. In the house. Hipkins stands on the half million Ingram report on field. Even then he still comes across as school kid.
“It’s a sad indictment on society that this wee girl, there’s nowhere that she can go to be safe and so we leave her with a mother who is refusing a drug test even after she’s killed the little girl’s elder sister. It makes me feel ill.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10851182
That quote appears to be a complete misrepresentation of the situation. Not surprising though, it’s from the sensible sentencing people. From what I can tell the child is being left with the mother, because to remove her at this stage would be incredibly damaging to the child. The judge made it clear that if that weren’t the case, the woman would go to jail.
Sensible sentencing would be to give the woman prescribed drugs, so she stops having to spend so much money on meth. Give her the support to stabilise her life. Those things will help the child.
Who Made Who HS?
Lyndon Hood’s latest, This Movie Sucks: NZ politics is a middle-earth script, and Hood makes a pitch to be a new writer for it.
No wonder Key is behind NZ doing some Dr Who eps! It’s a rellie of his!
Peter Sinclair interviews Dr. Kerry Emanuel of MIT and Dr. Jason Box of the Byrd Polar Center: Sandy and the Age of Superstorms.
Meanwhile…..the idiots persist…..
it sure is one “world of ruptured communion” joe, wonder how long the great unravelling will take…
http://www.amazon.com/Living-Word-Resisting-World-Paternoster/dp/1842270532
yet, round and round we go, where it stops, no body knows…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u1CB5xzbm8
-the VelociRapture (just fooling a round) Rock on The Standard. Live and Thinking Back at ya!
(we’ll be here 24/7 bringing you the best of what the Left has to offer, spinning those Platters 360 with
no interuptions)
So Joe, where do you see it all heading then, if you had to voice more than just some links, and actually put up a projection of how you saw things playing out, say over the nexy 10-30 years?
In a nutshell muzza, human activities appear to be influencing the planets heat sink, the oceans, and warmer water will contribute more moisture to the equatorial atmosphere so larger systems of longer duration pushing further north/south will be generated causing a rising number of severe weather events and dramatic shifts in rainfall distribution that will almost certainly result in agricultural/oceanic resource catastrophes which, when coupled with other resource shortages, will create conflict.
Anyone else having problems with everything taking forever to load on this site? (But not other sites)
A couple of times this morning I got stalls, and had to press reload, but not too bad.
Ah..
Thanks for the tip. I didn’t know “reload” could be used in this way.
Students may give up: survey
Could put a bit of a crimp in Joyce’s demand for more engineering students.
That particular issue was raised by Green co-leader Metiria Turei today on Q+A… Both Judith Collins and Peter Dunne scoffed at her. Meanwhile they spread their propaganda on thickly about needing to increase innovation through education, but as I see it their policy changes are at complete odds with ensuring New Zealand has enough trained and skilled graduates to meet demand.
A potential 40% decline in graduations shouldn’t be simply dismissed by saying the research is incorrect. I mean how many times can National say the statistics showing their utter failure as a government are wrong and get away with it?
Fancy that! John Armstrong is praising Labour for getting its act together. And under Mr Shearer’s leadership too:
Bold policy is a return to the old ways, and a worry for National.
Housing, a big part of Shearer’s keynote conference speech, is Labour’s bold policy focus as it promises to build 100,000 affordable homes in 10 years.
Housing, a big part of Shearer’s keynote conference speech, is Labour’s bold policy focus as it promises to build 100,000 affordable homes in 10 years. Photo / Mark Mitchell
For the first time in a very long time, Labour has come up with something radical on the policy front which may grab the public’s attention, if not imagination – and which National cannot really get away with copying.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10851136
Surely one has to wonder why Ian mac, before getting too excited?
Casinos & Brothels = AKL CBD
Way to make the city “world class” I guess!
Gambling markets and brothels? Sounds like a haven for Wall St bankers.
Yeah it seems to be at odds with the “worlds most liveable city” aspiration..
Which of course is total BS, and is set to get worse, it will not get better.
Corruption has already ensured that the outcomes are “priced in”
Well John Key did say some time ago he wanted to make NZ some kind of international financial hub.
NZ has been a financial hub for the globally corrupted since 1961 when we were handed over to the IMF/WB and thus those who sit behind those entities!
Most everything that has become wrong with/in NZ, stems from that! We handed over the gold reserves and most likely signed away rights to resources under the “conditions” of the loans received at the time, which would account for the way we the the DI.MI.SI attitude going!
Seeing the handover of our dairy industry now in full flight, farm debt a huge problem, having already lost control of food production by and large, along with the disputed water rights and energy generation, will complete the removal on NZ to ever be able to self sustain, we are at the mercy of foreign controlled entities, and we have not/will not be shown mercy, just look at what is going on to understand.
Personal Debt, City Debt, Farm Debt, Student Debt, National Debt!
New Lows In Broadcasting & Has National Started A Smear Campaign Against Winston Peters/ NZ First?
I saw what I thought was a disgusting news item on TV 3 the other night. At the centre of the headline is NZ First MP Brendan Horan. The story first surfaced on Sunday in print & tv, in all intent & purpose it to appeared to be a family dispute over a late mothers estate not uncommon when $$ involved. Hearing Winston Peters explain a family member had approached him some months ago with allegations against Horan, Peters said “show me some proof of any wrong doing” according to Peters ‘that never happened.’ Then this character goes to the media with a copy of a amendment document to their late Mothers Will, for all in sundry to see. An extremely vexatious & bizarre thing to do to a family member with a such a public profile. It seemed ‘suspect’ to hear she was terminally ill when the amendment was made. Having sadly known people in that state, drugs provides relief from pain, at the price of being mentally muddled as a result. So to me keeping an open mind, an element of duress has to be considered.
Back to the TV 3 news item that was bad taste & what aroused my suspicions of a politically motivated attack. What I found offensive was the filming at the Horan’s families late mothers grave site. In my view this was a bridge too far & breached decency from the broadcaster. Totally unacceptable & disrespectful to a family still morning the death ( died August ) of a loved one.
Secondly the reporter Brooke Sabin appeared to
the group I was watching the item with to show a sycophantic pleasure in covering this story. One of our group said “I wonder if he is related to National, Northland PM Mike Sabin?”
Bingo! It just happens to be the reporter Brook Sabin is Mike Sabin’s son!
Winston Peters & Mike Sabin have a history of bad blood. Without appearing to be a conspiracy theorist is it a coincidence his son took up this story? and is it the start of a politically motived attack to knock Peters out again? Have Crosby Texter had a part to play?
Your Opinions would be great 🙂
NZ First has been a threat to the polictical establishment, and this story surfacing is no surprise. Of course its a smear campaign.
Skinny. I had a similar reaction to to about the hounding of Brendan Horan by that twerp on TV3. Seems that those worms like Garner, Gower etc enjoy hounding politicians from all parties EXCEPT National and Act. Biased?
Marsman yes it wouldn’t surprise me if Nat daddy got straight on the blower to his son Brook, had him chase for the story & inflict as much damage as he could milk. NZ First have got a few runs on the board lately against Key & Co. I can recall Horan championing something against the Nats in the House & in the media a few months back, so any opportunity to smear him sounds about right.
Skinny
Did I not hear/read that Horan’s mother made a codicil a few mnonths before she died, at that same time two Doctor’s signed affidavits that she was fully “complis mentis” to make such a codicil so that nobody could say she was not right in her dottage.
Fox ‘someone’ has obviously put her up to do that. Did that someone call a family meeting to raise their concerns as you would? Or did they choose not too? It appears the later to me which is harsh on a lady dying. Another negative against that person.
Peters has done the right thing in standing Horan down. While a forensic anaylsis of Horan’s mother’s bank account is being done the media will feast on the statements of those involved. If Horan is defamed he can take this further and Peters comes out clean and he can then say it was a media beat up. If Horan has made false statements Peter’s will probably dump him if Horan does not resign. Peters has principles compared to Key.
Horan’s mother is being exploited by the media and family members appear to be in for the cash grab.
I want to know why the family did not appoint a lawyer to arrange the mother’s will when she was alive?
.
[ deep sigh ] A complete rinse and repeat from the climate change denialists, complete with reverential reference to the “Hockey Stick Illusion”. What is it with these people – do they think that if they repeat their lies often enough the science will disappear? In this instance, though, they are ignoring the science and attempting an “Unsworth” – attack the messenger. I beginning to wonder if perhaps the planet needs a climate catastrophe to bestir the somnamulent.
Actually, that’s exactly what they think. Or at least if they repeat the lies often enough, the science will be disguised by the impression that there is still fair-minded debate about the basics. So therefore the science that is reported is “balanced” by the other side of the “debate”. So the reality of the situation is disguised from as many people for as long as possible.
Don’t fear BliP, when the time is right you will be able to jump onto the options offered, and say you contributed to “saving the planet”
You may not like the options put forward but you won’t actually get a choice in the metter either, and they won’t be what you hope, or would want!
But none the less, it will be for the planet, so it will just teach those bottom dwellers whose in charge!
Hey McFlock, hows the local pedo rings going down your way?
Wow, that personality is more of a deranged prick than most of your others, muzz.
Going from LP’s random selective bans for “pointless abuse”, that should be getting you a week McFlock!
The week I got was helpful to appreciate that people just can’t/won’t see what is going on around them, perhaps its all just too much, perhaps they don’t have the faculties, most likely a combo of these, and more…
If my post seem more blunt at times, its because my patience for whats happening to NZ is running way out, and for those who won’t wrap their fat heads around the why, ran out long ago, so blunt it will be, along the way!
So why were you asking about pedo rings?
Because they’re a huge part of the problem, up and down the country.
[RL: I have to assume that this is an unfunny and nasty form of pointless abuse. Two week ban.]
Paedophilia rings are a huge part of the climate-change denier problem in NZ?
doxplox.
RL – No it was a serious question, as I was going to give a first hand account of what I have just seen happen in the AKL district courts but thought better of it, good call!
Frankly its getting too easy to be banned, and the reasons I am getting banned are not remotely evenly applied elsewhere, which indicates someone(s) have a got a beef.
As I said to LP its his sandpit, you guys police it, do what you want.
Just apply some consistancy, it looks like bias otherwise!
[RL: If you were trying to make a serious point you went about it very maladroitly. To the point where it just looked like nasty, unimaginative abuse to me and everyone else. I’ll give you one shot at convincing me there was more to this than what it looked like; otherwise the two weeks stands.
Moderation is not a machine; it’s a loose collective of people trying to read many hundreds of comments a day over a number of active threads. We’ll never be objective or consistent, and I’ve yet to see anyone we’ve ever moderated think we were being’fair’ at the time.]
I didn’t understand muzza’s comment to McFlock (it was completely context-less and then later not explained). But muzza did comment a couple of weeks ago, seriously, about child abuse rings, so I assumed the comment today was from something they have been thinking about.
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-15112012/comment-page-1/#comment-547848
It’s not my call, but I saw the comment as social ineptness or disconnect rather than tr*lling.
Muzza, a proper explanation to McFlock when asked for might have helped.
[RL: To make it clear, I agree with weka. I’ll rescind the ban if you have a proper explanation.]
Hi Weka, there a a small number on these boards who have the nous to try take in wider context than any singular days posts, so good on you for that.
@ RL – Short version – For most of this year ive seen affidavits with impacts/links outside AKL to the suspected/known abuses. One particular case continues to be deferred, with the defendant having a 20+ year history of various abuses, “unchecked”. Reasons have been spurious at best, and the prosecution seemingly looking to make it go away and/or stuff it up. NZ is a shit pile of this type of behaviour, which many have the misfortune to be much closer to than they are aware!
Thats all I’m going to say on it, unless there is further which I can link to via the MSM or the LF link, which was in my post Weka pointed out above..
[RL: That’s gives it a better context, I’ll rescind the ban. The original line directed at McFlock was however clumsy and offensive, and on face value was always going to get the wrong kind of attention from a moderator. ]
Reckon you’ll have some more time to appreciate that superior intellect and wisdom you imagine you possess Muzza, when the moderators catch your latest piece of offensive and gratuitous malice. Do think of us, wont you.
What are you on about JS?
And the point is, its got little to nothing to do with intellect, thats the primary issue. Most people are well capable of understanding, if only they started appreciating/accepting that there is likely, very little opportunity left to slow the sinking ship down.
[RL: The “how are the local pedo rings going down there” crack is not acceptable. It’s in the same category of boring old jibes like “your meds need adjusting”; ie unimaginative and gratuitously offensive. ]
are you really that oblivious?
This must have been on the boards previously, but I just came across it….
Auckland Council asked to keep quake-risk buildings secret
Good to know who contols Auckland then, as if thats not clear enough!
Has there been anything further to this, other the 393 buildings which have been named?
Great, more pro gay marriage propaganda, yet again some “star” or “celebrity”.
This time its Gandalf wanting to get married in Middle Earth.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10851222
Granted, the fantasy fiction theme is very appropriate for the gay ‘marriage’ cause.
Hate to tell you this, but he’s not really Gandalf.
If gays want to get married then good on them
What is with your intrusion into the bedrooms of consenting adults.
If Mckellen wants to marry his beau when what business is it of yours? There are greater threats to society than a couple of old queens wanting to exchange vows.
So you think one of the world’s greatest actors isn’t really a celebrity because he’s gay. Interesting.
If gay people want to get married, what business is it of yours to say they cant.
Wow, Freud would have a field day working out your fixation with “The Gays” and marriage K_P. Whatever gets you up in the morning I suppose. I was surprised after Keys hatred of “Gay” Red Shirts that he was quite cosy mincing down the “Gay” Red Carpet. Anything for Lord Peter Jackson eh.
MCKellan is a very, very talented man, and after checking out the MSM papers, it is always
uplifting to read The Standard.
-Shelley
Good heavens! The NZ Herald is reporting that the NZ Council is letting Tamihere reapply for party membership. It just doesn’t make sense for the Party heirachy to bend over backwards to ensure all natural justice for Tamihere compared with none for David Cunliffe. Maybe they should have spent the money for some decent legal opinions focussing Tamihere’s behaviour and statements against the test for party membership. Probably the Council was more influenced by Shearer’s support for his mate.
But its sure as heck not feeling like the Labour Party is the political party for me anymore.
/facepalm
The world is either being run by some very clever people who are taking the piss; or imbeciles who mean it.
I’m assuming Mr ‘Front Bum’ will get rushed into an electorate seat to bolster David Shearer’s numbers.
Rushed to the top of the list, more like.
I have had a gut full of this! A handful of Labour caucus members who do not want the Labour Party to be the Labour Party but do not want to go away either, and determinedly go on making room for their flunkies. Is there something we can do about it as members, apart from get very angry, and work out whether to vote Mana or Green? I can even imagine the Greens beating Labour in the next election, and Labour forming a coalition with National to keep the riff raff out. What lengths will these mediocrities go to in order to keep their places among “the people in the know.”
Hi Olwyn, I enjoy your comments, and its interesting to read the frustration in your words leaping off the screen of this one.
You could try going to police about the fact that there are criminal elements inside the LP, but it would not go very far, because, well the cops are bent too. Of course JT is wanted inside the LP by certain factions, he’s a natural fit given whats currently going on! The bloke is mates and more with Clint Rickards FFS, among others, and supported his application as a duty solicitor.
How is it that these types of people are controlling our world, and they continue to be elevated, or pulled back in, either way, they influence our lives? The answer should be self evident by now surely!
Hearing LP members being driven to consider voting elsewhere is exactly what is wanted, because voting for them, achieves the same thing.
I’m really not sure what the solution is, but I do know that options narrowing, quickly!
Labour going into coalition with National, wow, what a great moment in NZ history that would be.
We can only dream.
Benghazi@4.23pm my son said the same thing to me today too. He’s only voted twice, the third time he will apparently party vote Green.
I’d vote for Mr ‘Front Bum”
I like the cut of his jib.
Exactly why his application should have been turned down.
Why?, JT appeals to a tremendous amount of people out there, he’s a real asset to Labour.
Get him a seat to run in as soon as possible, the New Lynn seat’s coming free, stick him in that.
Yet when he ran for Mayor in west Auckland, long term mayor Bob Harvey still won – and at a time when many would have gone for someone different and younger, if only they had an alternative to vote for with more cred with the voters than JT.
Because his politics and personal beliefs are obviously “socially conservative”, or (to put it into the patois of the streets) “fucked in the head and a hundred years out of date”.
He should join National, or Density’s front organisation. He’ll get on okay with those equally atavistic folk. But even from a purely practical point of view, why would any party want as a member someone who publicly disenfranchises (even loathes) more than half of its other members and voters?
Left wing, even by pretension only, parties need to display integrity to their policies and principles. Giving jobs to shiny clowns just to get the small-minded vote is what tory parties do (not being as hobbled by principles or adherence to policy, of course).
Having just rejoined after many years in the wilderness I am gutted once again by the blatant disregard of the memberships wants and needs, I’m back off the greens again as an even more committed activist, what next for Labour, maybe Michael Lhaws will be invited to join as well!!
I guess the next thing we’ll hear is that King/Mallard have promised Tamihere the New Lynn seat. Olwyn – I just don’t know what we can do – I feel so powerless to stop Labour heading away from my values.
Strategically, I think I’ll hang on till February in case a member vote on the leadership is triggered. I think such a vote would pull everyone together and we could unite behind the leader whoever that was.
But the Council are a disgrace – they need to stop being so weak. I’d heard Grant Robertson has been stacking his people onto Council and LECs up and down the country – it seems to be coming true. If there is no member vote in the New Year, I’ll walk after that. I’ve had a gutsful too! And this Labour Party has moved too far away for me to embrace.
A swing to the right. A swing to the lowest common denominator. Victory for red-necks. If Robertson thinks that Tamahere will win votes in west Auckland he is a fool. We already have a good voting count. Westies remember that Tamahere walked from the Teust with $190k after tax the last time .
The labour leadership has lost the plot.
As a Westie (one who didn’t vote for Tamihere as mayor – ABT), I am pretty disgusted – well will be if he is selected as a candidate. He abused the Labour Party during the Conference – and indulged in some gleeful gay-baiting. I haven’t seen Cunliffe do anything like that.
Yes, that has to be the point.
When you consider how Cunliffe has been punished for doing so much for Labour, and how Tamihere is being rewarded for blatant destructiveness …. there is only one possible interpretation, deliberate provocation.
I’m thinking that the right-wing caucus faction is quite happy to burn off as much left-wing membership as possible before the February election.
According to Scott Hamilton, it is more a clique than a faction:
“Where a faction organises in the open, and tries to win a majority of a party to its views, a clique operates secretly and undemocratically.”
http://www.readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2012/11/labour-and-f-word.html
These people know that they cannot win on argument, so they resort to bullying and manipulation.
Well, they’re in for a shock then aren’t they. Everybody is hanging in there for the February election, and there’s even more left-wingers who have just joined the Party.
karol there are two systems of justice in play in the Labour Party at present. The justice meted out to those inside the King/Mallard leadership club, and that imposed on those on the outer. The real pity is that there is no effective check and balance against this by the Labour Party President et al of the Council. Shame on them all. And the Labour Party won’t be a sorted force to be rekoned with in an election until this double standard is weeded out. Unfortunately Shearer is now fully implicated – no hiding behind the King/Mallard apron on this. If you were waiting to see we’re Shearer would lead…..have you got the pattern yet?
+1 karol and jazzabelle and Benghazi @17.
Have been wondering why John Armstrong was praising Shearer so cloyingly today in the Herald. Wasn’t Robertson said to be the one Labour person to get on well with The Gallery? Is his relationship with them so good that there some hidden agenda or a ‘reached understanding between certain parties’ such that one David can be so hammered by the media for apparently doing nothing,whilst Shearer is praised to the heights for an average speech by autocue and now Armstrong penning this oddity http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10851136 Not to mention the strange return of JT.
So many things about the caucus since the Labour Conference are beginning to seem ‘not quite right’ or maybe ‘too right’ if you will excuse the pun. Is there a hidden Game (of Thrones) Plan, and why?
I think Grant Robertson’s relationship with the Gallery is actually just a referral from the right faction boss Annette King. King has been “feeding” and “grooming” John Armstrong, Vernon Small and Claire Trevett for a long time.
It is a very interesting exercise to look back on each of these Gallery journalists articles – you can see clear patterns in their reporting. I’ve always considered Small and Trevett to be lightweights but once upon a time I had some respect for John Armstrong. But even he doesn’t seem able to find an original thought in the past year.
Looks like Robertson has decided that he is the embodiment of all the true Labour ideals and so therefore everything he does to ensure his leadership of the party is justified. Omelettes and eggs and so on. He forgets that when you say that the means justifies the end, you forget that the means is the end.
if it is that hard to prize open the grip of those usual suspects in both the Labour caucus and the mainstream media, what is the point of a challenge in February 2014? Surely a loss would be turned into a win, a win turned into a loss.
yes I saw that they have “approved” JT *sigh*. anyway NSW “above normal Max temp and fire season
also,
but then “I’m only happy when it rains…pour your misery down on me…Garbage.
BBC-Assange “Swedes have their heads in the ground”
Senior U.S Republican source-the fiscal cliff regulation agreements (not) “are really going nowhere”
Last minute folks, roll up…roll up…
furthermore on CNN,” disappointing U.S and Eurozone economic figures”
RT-“The Electronic Intifada” hmmmm.
Endgame in the M.E.? Israel on the defensive; and we all know how a dog behaves when it’s cornered.
meanwhile, on SKY; “growing threat of U.S storms occuring; naturally occuring exceptional period of
Hurricanes (“and I’m gettin blown away…I am just a dreamer but you are just a dream…you could have been any thing to me) AND Climate Change, oh well, it’s not like there haven’t been signs!
ol’ Bri-“there goes His Hero…watch him as he burns”
The Breeders? “Cannonball”; is that a Deal Kim?
More Horror Road Crashes…say no more
Tamihere in. Now there is something to think about.
Arm was strong heralding the “power of the state to build houses” as scribed by the Parker Pen
(not a fan of “chippy” but then what would i know)
“Shot down in flames…aint it a shame…to be shot down in flames…yet we could always build a RONs
I hear Shearer strongly supports Tamihere. Reckon Shearer’s game plan is he needs a Maori on his front bench and Tamihere is the one.
I’ve made my calls over the last hour and this seems to be correct. Grant Robertson also spoke strongly in favour of giving Tamihere another chance.
In addition to courting the Maori vote, the strategy appears to be to help Labour cast off any remaining image of being ‘bleeding heart’ left wing. Jones and Tamihere to be given wide latitude in this.
I can’t help thinking that this call from the leadership is misguided.
It’s an insult to women and gays for the LP leadership to even consider having Tamihere stand! Definitely misguided. No principles! Anything to get elected and keep their status in the LP.
Yes its part of a concerted strategy by the Leadership team and its puppeteers (King/Mallard) to take Labour to the right. Roger Douglas must be laughing out loud today.
And that silly, weak Moira Coatsworth says its about “the need to be a party in unity and move on together” (TV3 News tonight). When did Tamihere EVER contribute to unity in the Party?!!!!
If that sexist and animal abuser is in the Labour Party then I am no longer a Labour supporter. I will be voting Greens unless David Cunliffe gets in and shows a fraction of the common sense of the idiots in the party at present.
Well, I have been content to vote Green while waiting for Labour to become a credible left wing party again, i.e. promoting social justice for all sections of the community rather than pandering to the middle-class neoliberal media.
So, now, in order to try to attract a section of the community they haven’t supported well-enough fr a while, they want to jettison another section of the community – but not their allegiance to the media & neoliberal consensus. They are truly a confused bunch.
If Tamihere stands as a candidate in West Auckland, I’ll do something I’ve never done before – join a party (the Greens) and go out on the streets campaigning for them. That’s how angry the idea of a return of Tamihere makes me.
Why what’s wrong with Tamihere?
John will be a lifeline for the party when it has it leadership election in February.
As the labour party has got no one else.
well, just for a Rogue opinion, this “Tamihere” thing is not going to end well; might as well have pulled
the pin and placed said pin between teeth; Jesus Wept, but what would he know as Benghazi is suggesting? A big fat diabetic NO to JT is my opionion; this is going to end in tears and that is my last
word on the matter; very sad day, yet he is not a candidate yet God Help us 🙂
meanwhile, Christchurch does not appear well at all, not at all, no Siree Gerry.
meanwhile, a new level of “ruthlessness” in Syria and TPTB have shut the “net” down; suplise suplise.
meanwhile, great infrastructure support for East Timor from China, God Bless China and the CCP
(we look forward to the third-year plan implementation)
🙂
To select Tamahere and demote Cunliffe in the one month is a direct snub to the working class credentials of Labour.
To suggest Tamahere is there to encourage a racially and tolerant image for Labour is a joke. He appeals to pakeha rednecks who will never vote for a left Labour.
This is direct challenge to the ethnic Sector, Carmel Sepuloni, David Cunliffe and all the members who voted for a modern open democratic Labour Party.
Shearer and Robertson must think the Conference was a vote of confidence in their stunning performance of the past year
Shearer and Ribrrtson must think the Caucus 100% vote meant they had won control back from the members!
NO, NO. NO.
Shearer and Robertson are in for a wake-up call.
They ate arrogant fools.
I am afraid you are quite correct Jazzabelle. My gut instinct to turn from Shearer after his unjust and distasteful actions last week is now justified. He showed his true colours then and now others are being revealed to be wearing his mark and it is not the mark or colour of the type of person I can support let alone unite with. Moira Coatsworth is whistling in the wind as far as I am concerned. I feel sure nothing good is going to come of this. If it is possible I will vote accordingly in February.
I’m not so sure they are in for a wake up call! King/Mallard have a very firm and vicious grip. And the Leadership team does whatever they suggest because they don’t actually have the skills to lead.
And why? Because King/Mallard do not qualify for a Parliamentary pension. They cannot afford to leave their Parliamentary incomes for a goodly while.
King/Mallard are poisonous and the Party hierachy needs to grow a spine and rise up and challenge them.
I don’t know about the hierarchy (I do – they don’t have a spine), but the party membership has always had a spine and it did indeed rise up. Fingers crossed for the coming months.
Found this an interesting read:
Still mulling it over so I’m not going to give any personal insights.
Thanks DTB. I take it to mean we need to know ourselves, and to not be afraid of offending by being who we are, in order to truly communicate with and understand others.
So I don’t feel quite so bad about commenting in anger,re Tamihere and the confused principles of Labour tonight…. though that may just be self-serving.
Agree but I think it goes some what beyond the classic Know Thyself to also say Be Thyself.
Interesting article on the Egyptian constitution.
Why is Egypt’s draft constitution so controversial?.
Let’s Be the Best FOR the World, Not IN the World
All such good questions and likely that most couldn’t answer them but I found this paragraph most interesting:
Because that is exactly where National Standards will take us. To a point where even the teachers won’t be able to comprehend the world around them.
Nice link. I”m trying to think of the last thing I bought and then asking the questions. Defining what is a need and what is a want is tricky. Needs that maintain current standard of living, or needs that ensure survival, or something in between?
John Tamihere, the “candidate from hell” …
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/141128/Candidate-from-hell-Tamihere-linked-with-Nats
There are hundreds of other links on Tamihere but I guess the Labour hierarchy don’t have Google.
The archive on his Radio Live rants will be keeping the Nats’ hit squad busy and happy – some really nasty stuff. The only possible defence would have been “it was a long time ago, he’s turned over a new leaf” – and yes, in theory anybody could .
Except Tamihere was attacking Labour only a few days ago (“headhunters gang” etc). He hasn’t changed, and it’s not even clear that the idiots in charge want him to.
Tamihere has money, staff, volunteers, position, networks, and major media access.
and that winning smile for the girls.
that adds up to the capacity to take Dr Sharples out pretty easy.
Either National or Labour would find him candidate material in those circumstances.
Perhaps like Jones he is more suited to National. So for that reason alone Labour choose to keep them.
Or perhaps rather Shearer needs someone to shore up his numbers once Beaumont replaces Jones after the Auditer-General’s report is out.
Also odd that Twyford is supporting Tamihere throughout. Is Twyford trying to take out Sepulina in Waitakere selection with Tamihere? Quite a darkness in operation there, a chilled dish of revenge served.
*Groan* Twyford is supporting Tamihere? If so, that increases the reasons for me getting active and becoming a Green Party member. Twyford is my MP. Sepuloni is still a more promising candidate for Waitakere than Tamihere, IMO. She came within a whisker last time. And since then all we’ve seen is Bennett’s vicious attacks on the least powerful.
Is Labour just becoming the Men’s Party?
And Tamihere is a big supporter of Charter Schools.
There are many a true saying!
The same goes for NZ.